The North Thurston girls swimming team continues to improve its times meet after meet against some of the toughest competition in the district.
Speaking of consistent improvement, senior Michelle Ewig qualified for districts in yet another event as she finished the 200-yard freestyle at 2:17.63, good for third place against Peninsula. In that same race, junior Aspen Bermensolo finished fifth and qualified for the league meet at 2:40.36, cutting nearly three seconds off her previous best time.
Ewig also qualified for leagues in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:18.66 to come in fourth.
Junior Kai Cardwell was North Thurston’s top finisher of the meet, taking second place in the 50-yard freestyle at 30.75 seconds. She also finished in third place in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:12.15 in a race that saw seven Rams PRs, including sophomore Ruth Cheney in fifth place at 1:20.10.
Junior Chelsea Watson swam in the 500-yard freestyle for the first time and qualified for the league meet with a fifth-place swim at 7:24.90. She finished behind senior June Booth, who took fourth at 7:19.18.
Cheney also scored a PR in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:50.72, five seconds better than her previous best time.
Peninsula won 147-33. North Thurston has battled illnesses throughout the week, but head coach Christy Bermensolo is still impressed with how her team has performed.
“Another challenging meet against Peninsula, but a number of our swimmers posted PRs. With two meets in one week, we really challenged the girls into new events and maxing out event loads to push their racing endurance,” she said. “This should serve us well as we enter the second half of our season.”
North Thurston will host Timberline on Thursday, Oct. 8.
